New York Fashion Week 2017 took major strides — and not just down the runway. On Valentine’s Day, FTL MODA presented the first-ever all-digital fashion presentation at the Samsung Gallery 837. Once inside, the invite-only guests virtually interacted with the collections, watched futuristic mannequins donning the actual collections, and browsed the end-of-aisle product details on a Samsung Tablet. There was even a red carpet to virtually pose and preen upon. Fashion tech is wave of the future.
A fashion show that revolves around a printer? This should be interesting. Epson held its Digital Couture project at NYFW for the third year in a row, blending fashion and technology by demonstrating how the printer can produce vibrant colors and patterns onto any item of clothing. As models strutted their stuff, the SureColor F-series industrial printer, which uses dye sublimation printing technology to heat-transfer patterns onto the fabric, was displayed proudly. The show also featured Italian digital inkjet textile printer maker Robustelli, which Epson acquired in 2016. Now if you’re bored of your clothes, you can change the pattern with the click of a button. Thanks, Epson!
Yes, going to a real live fashion show is exhilarating — but have you ever gone to a fashion show on your phone? And we’re not talking about watching it a few days later when the footage is released; we’re talking about watching it in real time as the models hit the runway. With Instagram live, fans have a chance to see Fashion Week in all its trendsetting glory, with raw footage from the show, as well as backstage. However, Instagram Stories disappear the second the live stream ends, so make sure to catch it before it’s gone like yesterday’s styles.
This year’s New York Fashion Week seemed to have a recurring theme: wearable tech. Designer Calvin Yuo, featured dresses, trench coats, and jackets that were connected to smart phones. By typing a word or phrase onto the phone, the message is shows up on the clothing for all to see. Not surprisingly, Google jumped on the fashion technology bandwagon, teaming up with H&M to create the Data Dress app. Monitored by Google’s new Awareness API, the app records your daily activities and produces a customized dress to fit your lifestyle. Fashion on demand, on your phone.